The Shaper GIF above is done during my first attempt while recording with 15C Abyss jewels and a 20C claw, everything else is unique gear and relatively cheap (:
After playing Reave for 4 leagues, I wanted to make another crazy build that would be good for mapping and doing Shaper which brought me to Spectral Throw.
This build is the strongest Spectral Throw build in the game while being also one of the cheapest relative to the cost of an average Spectral Throw build! On top of all that you freeze absolutely everything that's possible to freeze, mostly before they even attack you!

HOW THE BUILD WORKS

OFFENSE

We try to get as much cold and lightning damage as possible and convert the lightning damage into cold damage. Lightning damage usually has a lot higher numbers so it's preferred to find lightning damage jewels. We also kill stragglers / monsters that didn't get hit very easily with Herald of Thunder / Ice.
The damage numbers on Spectral Throw realistically go somewhere 5 - 20 million with this build, depending on how you're using it. If you're using slower projectiles + Vaal ST + reduced deceleration enchantment, you hit something around 10x per second on a single boss making any boss a complete joke.

DEFENSE

Defenses come from 5500 - 6500 effective health, blind, evasion, some block, chill( 30% slower attacks and movement) and on top of it we freeze all monsters / bosses. Normal monsters get often frozen with heralds even before you manage to get in range for them which feels great! We also have a lot of life leech that leeches us up super quick thanks to on hit & normal leech combined. While this build does have relatively low HP, it's far from being rippy but at the same time not hardcore viable.

VIDEOS

Spoiler

Uber Elder kill in Incursion 3.3 on above average gear.

These videos are done in 3.3 Incursion at level 91 with mid tier gear.

T17 Shaper - Used magic low HP Abyss jewels to prove that no expensive jewels are required to one shot or complete Shaper deathless. As you can see, all bosses get frozen even without damage jewels and blood rage.

Rare T16 Hydra - Extra damage and Enfeeble curse( I deal around 40% less damage), Used Faster Projectiles here to demonstrate how Spectral Throw can off screen 1.5 screens away, which is perfect if you want to quick run maps without bossing! Somehow I managed to miss the Abyss.

Since ele claws and foils have gone out of trend, they're all very cheap now! All you need is at least 20+ attack speed, T1 lightning, critical strike chance, critical strike multiplier. You may craft chance or multi yourself on the weapon like I have.
A GG weapon would be all T1:
Lightning damage, cold damage, elemental damage with attacks, attack speed, critical strike multiplier, critical strike chance.

60C.

I was initially worried that it'll be expensive but max rolled Lycos were already 60C on day 3. You absolutely may use a random rare / unique shield in the beginning as well.

200 - 250C max rolled and linked.

This is one of the reasons why this build is cheap. Most builds require a 6 linked unique chest which is always 700+ chaos.
You may very well start off with a 6 link chest as well which is 25C.

15 - 25C.
1 socket - 1 ALCH

This can be improved massively with a Spectral Throw Deceleration enchantment which gives you around 25% more damage.
Can be replaced with a rare helmet for starting.

1C.
2 socket - 120C

I prefer to keep it at 1 socket. You can easily replace these with any other or rare boots to balance your resistances instead of using jewels for that.

50 - 90C.
1 socket - 1 ALCH

This is a slot that I always try to get 2 sockets as well, 1 socket would cost 1C. Definite best in slot because of the intimidation debuff which makes the enemy take 10% increased damage. If you use a 1 socket, definitely put Murderous Eye jewel in it.

15 - 45C.

You should use a belt to balance your resistances or gain extra strength if you need it early on. This belt was just a cheap one that I got.

1C each

25 - 40C.

All these 3 accessories are required as they're better than any super GG mirror tier equipment

Life flask should always be with bleed removal. Wise oak should be balanced to highest cold res and Silver flask can be swapped out with whatever you prefer most.

JEWELS & ABYSS JEWELS

Spoiler

You have to use some normal jewels to balance your resistances or if you get a good 4 mod damage + HP jewel you can use that but generally you don't want to use more than 2-3 normal jewels.

You should not be afraid of Abyss jewels and their cost. I crafted mine myself in the beginning with alt + regals. Using already only HP jewels is enough for starting which I demonstrated in the Shaper video.

When buying Abyss jewels you may and can start off the character or league without HP jewels as they always cost more, no matter what but generally you should always rather lose damage than sacrifice HP as the build is already quite on the edge on the HP side.
Remember when you buy jewels, you need to balance them as well. As an example too much attack speed will have diminishing returns eventually.

You have to choose yourself if you want to move faster or be tankier. Either option is fine, I personally played with Fortify.

Blood Rage

Blood Rage

Ancestral Protector

Ancestral Protector

ASCENDANCY / BANDIT / PANTHEON

Spoiler

Bandit: Alira
Pantheon: Soul of Solaris & Soul of Gruthkul

SKILL USAGE

Spoiler

Spectral Throw - When using greater multiple projectiles, try to throw them mostly once front, then behind you and just move forward for most efficient mapping speed. When using slower projectiles you have to be literally in melee range. This should be used when you know that you kill boss fast enough for your flasks to not expire. If you don't like being in melee range you can swap it with Cold Penetration instead, I did this for my first Shaper run with this build, later I swapped to Slower Projectiles.

Vaal Spectral Throw - This is a mad cool skill and super strong for bossing / breaches / abysses. You should use it as soon as the event or the boss fight begins. The vaal charges stack up to 3 and you should use it against bosses asap.

Frost Bomb - You should drop it down before you start fighting with a boss, it applies our curse. You have to make sure though that the explosion does hit the boss in the end, otherwise the curse doesn't apply. This gives us 30% cold penetration which is a lot! Not necessary when you can kill bosses <5s.

Ancestral Protector - This gives us extra DPS and Culling strike if it's linked. It does not have any other use.

Blood Rage - We use this as well for extra attack speed only. Pop it once you start a map and you should be good. Might need to activate it twice for Guardians / Shaper.

Herald of Thunder and Herald of Ice - It's main use is to give us damage and freeze monsters that are ahead of us. The freeze is so insane that we mostly run through maps without getting attacked at all. It also gives us some extra damage and kills stragglers / barrels for us. You can equip Onslaught gem on it if you have space which will proc a few times during mapping, this would allow you to swap Silver flask too.

Wrath - Simply a lot more damage!

POB & DAMAGE & MAX DAMAGE

Spoiler

Keep in mind that the DPS that you're seeing is around 4 - 10x lower than what you're seeing because of "Vaal Spectral Throw" and "30% Reduced Spectral Throw Projectile Deceleration".

From Wiki:

"an enemy can be hit once (per attack) every 0.3 seconds."
"With optimal positioning the skill can hit 3-4 times, or 4-5 times with the 30% reduced Spectral Throw Projectile Deceleration helm enchantment"

Another major thing to keep in mind is that we chill all enemies which makes them attack and move 30% slower.

Shock is enabled since we actually do shock enemies almost always for at least 20%.

My own character level 92 POB - 16th of July 2018 - Rest of the build is not updated with it atm, use this link.

Level 100 POB with maximum GG items and corruptions - 15th of June 2018. You should use it to see what are the best corruptions and stats everywhere. With Vaal Spectral Throw + 30% Reduced Deceleration, the real Shaper total DPS is somewhere 8x higher than listed ~ 90 million DPS.
You should also fiddle around there if you want to min max your stats as some corruptions barely give anything such as 5% damage.

At level 28 I switched to Doomfletch and bought a proper rare quiver as well.
At level 40 I bought Doomfletch's Prism and Drillneck quiver. If you don't have currency to buy DoomFletch's Prism, it's completely fine and you can experiment with other higher level bows as well.

After finishing Act 5, all that I did was simply buy enough random and rare gear to keep my resistances capped at 75% while trying to have max life on gear as well to not die constantly. I swapped off nearly all uniques that I bought in the beginning except Meginord's Girdle, Doomfletch & Drillneck.

Your playstyle should be simply running all the time and shooting once every 5 seconds or so to proc your Mirage Archer so you would get free XP while you run. I personally was not underleveled til Act 6 and I was only running from start til end, did not stop for a moment to kill any normal mobs. For most bosses during Act 6-10 I did try to level up before engaging the fight to not lose XP if it was above 15%.

You may have to buy some skill gems from other players.
I cared only about 3 skills, my Heralds and main skill.

For some bosses I switched Greater Multiple Projectiles with a random damage gem, you may choose yourself which one you prefer.

UBER ELDER GUIDE & SETUP

Spoiler

First try I failed
Second try I got trolled with Lightning Golem killing me twice in a row on 2 last portals when Elder was 0% and Shaper 2%

On third try I had 3 portals left after the fight. I made a lot of mistakes everywhere and I believe I was overgeared.

I used exactly the same items as I do for my regular build, except I hyped up my chest with a 9 EX purchase, bought a 1 EX Pandemonious, Spectral Throw helmet for 1 EX and bought 45+ life Abyss jewels with at least 1 damage mod. Each one cost 50 - 150C, not more. I also spent divines and switched out my belt to balance my Wise Oak. I also grabbed an Aquamarine Flask to survive Elder attacks better.

It took me 3 tries to kill the Uber Elder while having experience previously. It was still pretty hard but from now on I'm pretty sure I won't fail another set with this build and will use this build as my Uber Elder farmer.

I've ticked Power Charges which is something close to the 20% shocked damage.

Biggest changes in the tree:

> Every life and defensive node is taken with 2 more Abyssal jewels slots, including Phase Acrobatics.
> In Pantheon Gruthkul is changed to Yugul.

Biggest changes in gem links:

> Removal of Lightning Golem because when joining back to an area, you get randomly gunned down. This is replaced with Molten Shell which seems to be better than Immortal Call in overall.
>Whirling Blades has both Fortify and Faster Attacks to move quicker and be able to tank better.

For the Uber Elder fight mechanics, I suggest you watch some videos first and research it properly before you enter it. You will most likely fail the first time and then watch and learn again. This applies to every build.

For this build the most important things to remember is to not be afraid to fight and not rush with killing Shaper / Elder.

> You have to stay calm and strategic.
> You have to deliver Shaper ground balls to far away corners safely.
> You have to check corners if the small minions have spawned and kill them asap safely. If you don't kill them, they keep making ground filled with goo that damages you when you step on it and they keep moving inward to repeat the process.
> If Shaper is beaming and Uber Elder is doing big circle attack, you have to wait it out.
> When Portals spawn, you sometimes have to take a bigger circle around them.
> Use your flasks wisely. If you spam them all out early, you die. Your Aquamarine flask can last up to 24 seconds as an example. Your life flask is for to use only when you are below 50% HP and know that you can't leech for a few seconds.
> If you die, wait inside the map until Shaper and Elder finish their special moves, except for portals.

> You may sit in Shaper ball circles for a short period if you want to kill small minions since you leech.
> The Elder circle move takes 7 seconds to do damage, you should be moving out of it until the last 2 seconds.

A typical fight should / could look like this:

> Only damage dealer that you should be seriously worried about is Shaper. Uber Elder already has a lot of damage mitigation in gear.
> You can complete phase 1 really quick( 10 seconds) since you can juke Shaper balls early very easily and with the blades coming back you can pretty much kill Elder too to the next phase.
> You should use Vaal Spectral Throw on each portal and keep jumping from one to another to avoid Shaper balls.
> When you see an opening where you can do damage for 2-3 sec and the boss isn't damaged to a level where it will switch to next phase, use your Vaal Spectral Throw in melee range.
> During Shaper portal phase you can facetank 80% of the Elder shots but sometimes it's smart to jump away.
> During last phase you still have to keep an eye on small adds and Shaper ground circles. Minions also help you get Vaal Spectral Throw so it's smart to kill them already for that.
> Once everything seems safe, blast them down as fast as possible but don't be afraid to back off sometimes to corners.

If you fail the first time, it's completely fine, I've failed all first tries on all character builds with every budget gear. You may even fail 10 times but once you learn the fight, stop spamming flasks and complete it - it will become very easy for you.

GGG is turning into EA - Metrics matter and "fun" is not a metric. PoE is now a ridiculously easy, lazy and shallow game, filled with more and more forced activities each league that exist just to waste your time, not provide a fun experience. Won't delete my builds but also won't update them.

Is this build playable with next-to-no currency? I've always loved the look of Spectral Throw but never got round to playing one due to currency restraints. Just wondering if there's a way to play this by budget and eventually progress into decent gear?

Is this build playable with next-to-no currency? I've always loved the look of Spectral Throw but never got round to playing one due to currency restraints. Just wondering if there's a way to play this by budget and eventually progress into decent gear?

Looks good.

Everything is doable as long as you use double Brotherhood ring. I will do a video tomorrow of using only life Abyss jewels and some dogshit items to demonstrate how good the base scaling and damage of the build is (:

GGG is turning into EA - Metrics matter and "fun" is not a metric. PoE is now a ridiculously easy, lazy and shallow game, filled with more and more forced activities each league that exist just to waste your time, not provide a fun experience. Won't delete my builds but also won't update them.

hey, gonna start with your build but since im not an experienced player i would love it if u could take the time for a bit more detailed lvling guide, like what gems/links did u use, which were the uniques u picked for lvling and maybe some key destinations in the tree to reach in what order

Clearing trash was a breeeeze, bosses have been a little pain. Even with a 'Ornament of the East' claw, Onslaught, frenzy charges and anything else, attack speed was really slow unfortunately. But its doable. Maybe you could give a little more detail for leveling this - if you got the time of course.

-------

Another Thing:

Would you recommend linking Frostbite with CoH + HoI for clearing trash or not necessary regarding clearspeed?

Clearing trash was a breeeeze, bosses have been a little pain. Even with a 'Ornament of the East' claw, Onslaught, frenzy charges and anything else, attack speed was really slow unfortunately. But its doable. Maybe you could give a little more detail for leveling this - if you got the time of course.

-------

Another Thing:

Would you recommend linking Frostbite with CoH + HoI for clearing trash or not necessary regarding clearspeed?

I'll try to make a video to make you understand a bit better how easy clearing maps is, it's redicolous!

hey, gonna start with your build but since im not an experienced player i would love it if u could take the time for a bit more detailed lvling guide, like what gems/links did u use, which were the uniques u picked for lvling and maybe some key destinations in the tree to reach in what order

GGG is turning into EA - Metrics matter and "fun" is not a metric. PoE is now a ridiculously easy, lazy and shallow game, filled with more and more forced activities each league that exist just to waste your time, not provide a fun experience. Won't delete my builds but also won't update them.

GGG is turning into EA - Metrics matter and "fun" is not a metric. PoE is now a ridiculously easy, lazy and shallow game, filled with more and more forced activities each league that exist just to waste your time, not provide a fun experience. Won't delete my builds but also won't update them.